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CIRCULAR

Guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Government's Decree no. 186/2004/ND-CP of november 5, 2004, stipulating the management and protection of road traffic infrastructures

In furtherance of the Government's Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP of November 5, 2004, stipulating the management and protection of road traffic infrastructures (hereinafter called Decree 186/2004/ND-CP), the Ministry of Transport hereby guides the implementation of provisions on protection scope of road traffic infrastructures; the use and exploitation of land reserved for roads; the settlement of existing problems regarding the use of road safety corridors as follows:

I. PROTECTION SCOPE OF ROAD TRAFFIC INFRASTRUCTURES

The protection scope of road traffic infrastructures shall cover road land; road safety corridors, aerial, underground and underwater protection areas related to safety of road facilities and road traffic safety, specifically as follows:

1. The road land is the land on which the following road facilities are built:

1.1. Roads (road bed, road surface, haunch, curb, pavement);

1.2. Road bridges (river-spanning bridges, urban flyovers, road and railroad footbridges);

1.3. Road tunnels (through-mountain tunnels, under-river tunnels, under-road tunnels, under-railroad tunnels);

1.4. Anti-collision or 'slide facilities, walls, water flow-training embankments, anti-crumble embankments.

1.5. Traffic islands, medians, barriers, parapets;

1.6. Car stops, car parks on roads, traffic control stations, vehicle load-inspection stations, bridge or road tollbooths, vehicle-weighing or -counting equipment;

1.7. Water-drainage or lighting systems, technical tunnels, road embankments;

1.8. Ferries, pontoon bridges, river-crossing means shelters;

1.9. Road signal system comprising traffic lights, signboards, beacons, milestones, road-painted lines;

1.10. Measurement markers, road boundary-markers.

1.11. Traffic safety support facilities

2. Road safety corridors mean land strips along road sides (including river and stream water surface along bridges, tunnels, ferries, pontoon bridges), aiming to ensure traffic safety and protect road facilities, including the following types:

2.1. Safety corridors for roads (in urban centers, outside urban centers, running in parallel with rivers, ditches, canals, adjacent to railroads);

2.2. Safety corridors for road bridges, culverts;

2.3. Safety corridors for road tunnels;

2.4. Safety corridors for ferries, pontoon bridges;

2.5. Safety corridors for road embankments.

3. The protection scope limits of road safety corridors are specified in Articles from 13 thru 17 of Decree 186/2004/ND-CP. Road management agencies, when determining the width of the road safety corridors, must base themselves on the road grades managed under planning; for bridges, must base themselves on the length of the bridges.

4. The protection scope limits of car terminals, parking lots, traffic control stations, vehicle load-inspection stations, bridge or road tollbooths and facilities in service of management of road exploitation shall be the scope of the land and water areas of the facilities, stated in the land use permits by state agencies competent to assign or lease land.

5. Aerial protection scope:

5.1. Works having existed before the effective date of Decree 186/2004/ND-CP, the aerial protection scope of which violates the provisions of Decree 186/2004/ND-CP, shall be temporarily left in status quo.

5.2. Newly built, upgraded or renovated works must ensure the following aerial protection scopes:

a) For roads running under flyovers, the minimum aerial protection scope (overhead clearance) shall be 4.75 meters measuring from the middle of the road to the lowest point of the flyovers, not to mention the portion reserved for elevating the road surface;

b) The communication lines stretching over roads must ensure the minimum distance of 5.50 meters from the road surface to the lowest point of the communication lines;

c) The power transmission lines stretching over roads must ensure the minimum distance of the power transmission lines at the lowest point when the lines are in the maximum sagging state of 4.50 meters plus the electricity discharge safety distance according to the voltage levels provided for by the law on electricity.

Power grid work owners shall have to implant and manage signboards, height limit boards at intersections between overhead power transmission lines and the underneath roads according to the Regulation on Vietnam Road Signs and guide units directly managing roads.

6. Essential works (permitted by competent road management agencies) built underground or underwater within the road land, road safety corridors must be at the depth or the horizontal distance not affecting the management, maintenance, exploitation and durability of the road works. The depth and horizontal distance shall be stated in the construction permits issued by competent road management agencies.

7. The horizontal limits of road safety distance for communications lines, power transmission lines (permitted by competent road management agencies) installed on tops of electricity posts or communications posts within the road safety corridors must ensure the following minimum distances:

7.1. For posts with the height of over 3.75 meters (measuring from land surface at the foot of the post to the top of the post), the distance from the foot of embanked road talus or the edge of the dug road top to the foot of the post shall be at least equal to 1.3 times the height of the post;

7.2. For posts with the height being under or equal to 3.75 meters, the distance from the foot of the embanked road talus or the edge of the dug road top to the foot of the post shall be at least 5 meters.

8. Road and railroad overlapping corridor

When a railroad safety corridor overlaps a road safety corridor, the safety corridor shall be determined on the principle of prioritizing the arrangement of adequate railway safety corridor but ensuring that the railway safety corridor limit does not run over the road talus or section, specifically:

8.1. In cases where a road and a railroad run close to each other and share a common longitudinal ditch, the safety corridor limit of each road shall be determined as follows:

a) The talus foot of the railroad or the intersection between railroad foundation talus and the bottom of the longitudinal ditch at place where the railroad foundation is higher or equal to the road foundation;

b) The talus foot of the road foundation or the intersection between the road foundation talus and the bottom of the longitudinal ditch at the place where the road foundation is higher than the railroad.

8.2. In cases where a road and a railroad are close to each other at their outer edges, the safety corridor limit of each road shall be the outer edge of such works;

8.3. In cases where the common safety corridor between a road and a railroad is smaller than the prescribed total safety corridors of the two roads, priority shall be given to adequate arrangement of railroad safety corridor; in cases where the adequate safety corridor of the railroad runs over the road, the railroad's safety corridor shall be the outer edge of the road.

9. Facilities lying outside road safety corridors but affecting the road traffic activities or safety must comply with the following regulations:

9.1. Lime kilns, metallurgical kilns, brick kilns, glassware kilns, pottery kilns must be located at least 25m away from the feet of the roads in order to avoid dusts and air pollution which reduce the visibility of traffic means operators and the safety of traffic means operation;

9.2. Marketplaces and business or service spots must lie outside the road safety corridors and comply with plannings approved by competent bodies and all activities thereat must not affect the traffic safety;

9.3. Explosive, toxin or inflammable storehouses and mine-exploding mines must be located outside the corridors at a safe distance under the provisions of law in order to ensure traffic safety when the mining activities are carried out or when incidents causing unsafety occur;

9.4. Other facilities lying outside the road safety corridors but affecting traffic activities and road traffic safety, which have been detected by, and must be redressed at the requests of, competent road management bodies, must be redressed in time by their owners. In cases where the work owners fail to voluntarily do so, the road management bodies shall compile dossiers proposing the competent People's Committees to handle them according to the provisions of law.

II. USE AND EXPLOITATION OF LAND RESERVED FOR ROADS

1. Road land, road traffic safety corridor land shall be reserved only for construction of road facilities, used and exploited for purposes of land transport and traffic safety. It is strictly forbidden to build other works within road land areas or road safety corridor land areas, excluding the essential works specified in Clause 2 of this Section.

2. In cases where due to difficult terrain conditions or special technical requirements, essential works cannot be built outside road land areas or road safety corridor land, it is permitted to temporarily use the road land or road safety corridor for construction of the following essential works: works in service of security or defense maintenance; underground optic cable lines, electricity transmission lines, water supply pipelines, gasoline or gas pipelines; electricity posts, communications posts. The essential work investors must strictly comply with steps for the construction agreement, license according to the provisions of this Circular and relevant provisions of law, and at the same time commit to relocate the works at the request of the road authorities and not to claim any compensation.

3. The use of safety corridors at places where roads or railways overlap must be approved by competent road management bodies and railway management bodies and comply with the provisions of law.

4. It is allowed to plant in road safety corridors food crops, subsidiary food crops, fruit trees, timber trees or to develop aquaculture, but the provisions of Clause 1, Article 25 of Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP must be complied with. At intersections between roads and railroads or between roads and roads or at winding road sections where vision can be easily obstructed, only trees of no more than 1 meter high as compared with the road shoulders can be planted in that area.

5. It is strictly forbidden to build roads from people's houses directly connecting to national highways.

III. ORDER AND PROCEDURES OF PERMITTING THE CONSTRUCTION OF WORKS WITHIN ROAD LAND AREAS

1. For the essential works mentioned in Clause 2, Section II of this Circular, before being constructed within the road land areas, the relevant organizations or individuals must comply with the following order and procedures:

1.1. For national highways:

a) The written approval of competent road management bodies right at the time of formulating the projects and technical designs before they are submitted to competent authorities for approval must be obtained. The Ministry of Transport shall assign the competent road management bodies to consider and issue the written approval as follows:

- Vietnam Road Administration shall receive and settle projects of Group A and Group B; projects related to expressway, high-grade roads, grade- I roads, exclusively managed roads must be approved by the Ministry of Transport.

- Road Management Sections shall receive and settle projects of Group C, new constructions, repair works, which are not to the extent of project formation and related to national highways under the management of the Road Management Sections.

b) After obtaining the written approvals of competent road management bodies, within 12 months for projects of Group A, Group B and within 6 months for projects of Group C and other projects, counting from the date of receipt of the written approvals, the investors must complete the procedures in accordance with the regulations on construction investment management in order to ensure that the projects are approved and deployed for construction. Before the construction, the investors or the contractors must compile dossiers of application for construction permits and send them to road management bodies competent to grant permits according to the provisions at Point c, Clause 1 of this Section.

c) The granting of permits for construction of essential works in road land areas or road safety corridors:

Essential works to be constructed in road land areas or road safety corridors shall be constructed only when the construction permits issued by Road Management Sections are obtained; a dossier of application for a construction permit comprises:

- An application for permit to construct items related to traffic safety, road facility, road safety corridor, enclosed with the construction scheme which can ensure traffic safety, the construction time; the written commitment to voluntarily relocate the works when so requested by road authorities and not to claim any compensations.

- The competent road management body's written approval upon formulation of project and design.

- The dossiers of technical design and construction plan already approved by competent authorities.

Within 15 days after the receipt of complete prescribed dossiers, the Road Management Sections shall have to consider and directly grant the construction permits (do not authorize their subordinates to do this). In cases where conditions do not permit the grant of permits, they must give replies in writing, clearly stating the reasons therefor to the applying organizations or individuals.

The Road Management Sections shall have to archive the original dossiers, send the written approvals and construction permits to Vietnam Road Administration and Road Traffic Inspectorate of the same level for monitoring, supervision and handling of violations upon their occurrence according to the provisions of law.

1.2. For local roads: Based on the provisions of Clause 2, Article 24 of Decree 186/2004/ND-CP, and this Circular, provincial-level People's Committees shall specify the use, exploitation and construction permission in accordance with the provisions of law.

2. Connecting roads from industrial parks, economic zones, population quarters, commercial and service areas to national highways:

2.1. In order to ensure traffic safety and national highway standards, minimizing the direct connection of roads from industrial parks, economic zones, population quarters, commercial and service areas to national highway systems. In case of construction of industrial parks, economic zones, population quarters, commercial or service areas under local plannings on socio-economic development, the provincial-level People's Committees shall have to direct the investors in building access roads lying outside the road safety corridors and connecting the access roads to the existing spur roads before they are connected to the national highways under the provisions of Clause 2, Article 24 of Decree 186/2004/ND-CP.

2.2. In cases where there are in the areas no existing spur roads or where localities urgently need to directly connect the access roads to the national highways, the connection must be placed under general plannings and comply with the following order:

a) The step of reaching agreement on planning

Provincial-level People's Committees shall formulate the general plannings on industrial parks, economic zones, population quarters, commercial and service areas, that wish to use the road safety corridors to build roads connecting the industrial parks, economic zones, population quarters, commercial and/or service areas to the national highways, and have to reach agreement in writing on the use of the road safety corridors, connection points with the Ministry of Transport before the latter approves the plannings.

b) The step of approving of technical designs on connection, organization of traffic junctions, ensuring conditions for traffic safety upon construction of roads connecting to national highways:

Based on the written agreement of the Ministry of Transport, provincial-level People's Committees shall approve the plannings according to their competence and assign the provincial functional bodies and investors to make technical design of each specific connection point, access road system according to the planning agreed upon, draw up schemes on organization of traffic junctions, conditions to ensure traffic safety at connection areas and send the dossiers to the following road management bodies for consideration and approval:

- Vietnam Road Administration shall approve the technical designs on connection (sections lying inside road safety corridors), the schemes on organization of traffic junctions, the conditions to ensure traffic safety, archive the original dossiers on connection points related to national highways of grades I, II, III and expressways.

- Road Management Sections shall approve the technical designs on connection (sections lying inside road safety corridors, the schemes on organization of traffic junctions, the conditions to ensure traffic safety, archive the original dossiers on connection points related to national highways of grade IV or lower.

c) The step of granting permits for construction to ensure traffic safety

The construction of roads connecting to national highways shall be allowed only after the construction permits are granted by Road Management Sections in order to ensure traffic safety on national highways throughout the process of construction. The dossiers of application for construction permits shall be compiled and submitted to the Road Management Sections by investors or contractors, each comprising:

- An application for construction permit, enclosed with the construction scheme to ensure traffic safety; the time of construction by contractor; the written commitment to dismantle facilities or change connection designs when so requested by road authorities and not to claim any compensations;

- The written approval of the Ministry of Transport and the written approval of the technical designs on connection, organization of traffic junctions, conditions to ensure traffic safety by competent road management bodies;

- The technical design and the design on construction organization, approved by competent authority.

Within 10 working days after the receipt of complete dossiers as provided for, the Road Management Sections shall have to consider and directly grant construction permits (must not authorize their subordinates to do so). In case of lacking conditions for grant of permits, they must give written replies, clearly stating the reasons therefor.

The Road Management Sections shall have to archive the original dossiers of application for construction permits and send the construction permits to Vietnam Road Administration and Road Traffic Inspectorate of the same level for monitoring, supervision and handling of violations upon their occurrence according to provisions of law.

2.3. For projects which play important role in social stability such as resettlement, environment improvement, power plants, water supply plants,... or single construction projects at places where industrial parks, economic zones, population quarters, commercial and/or service areas are yet formulated in mountainous regions, Central Highlands, on national highways of low traffic flow, pending provincial-level People's Committees draw up schemes on construction of feeding roads or local roads, provincial Services of Transport or provincial Services of Communications and Public Works shall advise provincial-level People's Committees on making the lists of projects which must urgently be connected to national highways (with written appraisal of provincial Services of Transport, or Services of Communications and Public Works on the extent of traffic safety at the connection areas), sending them to competent road management bodies as decentralized at Point 2.2, Clause 2, Section III of this Circular (excluding the step of reaching agreement on plannings) so as to base themselves on the practical conditions to consider and permit the temporary connections to the national highways in service of production and construction within one year or no more than two years in case of extension; after this time limit, the localities shall have to close all these temporarily connected roads and comply with the plannings of provincial-level People's Committees or connection plannings agreed upon with the Ministry of Transport. For grade-I roads, they shall be managed under separate regulations or for newly upgraded national highways, the Ministry of Transport's approval is required.

- Cases of alteration, amendment or supplementation of the agreed plannings or cases of new requirements must be approved by the Ministry of Transport.

2.4. Feeding roads connecting to national highways must be built outside road safety corridors; for special cases where terrain conditions are difficult or no land fund is left, provincial-level People's Committees shall propose the Ministry of Transport to permit a part of the access roads to lie within the road safety corridors. Access roads built along the direction of awaiting the use thereof for a project or continuity with adjacent projects shall be connected to the national highway at one or many points but the interval between two connection points must not be smaller than 1,500 meters.

3. Connecting public local roads to national highways:

3.1. Provincial roads, urban roads of special grade or grade 1 (hereinafter referred to collectively as provincial roads) which are newly built and connected to national highways must be included in the plannings on development of systems of provincial roads, agreed upon in writing by the Ministry of Transport as provided for at Point b, Clause 1, Article 8 of Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP.

3.2. Roads of other types, when being newly built and connected to national highways, must reach the minimum technical grade which is lower than the planned technical grade of national highways of grade 1; the provincial-level People's Committees shall plan the connection points and consult with the Ministry of Transport before the planning is approved.

3.3. The agencies approving designs, granting permits for connection of public local roads to national highways or upgrading, expanding the existing road junctions shall comply with the provisions of Point 2.2, Clause 2, Section III of this Circular (excluding the step of reaching agreement on planning).

3.4. Local roads which had been connected to national highways without permission before the effective date of Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP and have not yet affected the traffic safety may be let to temporarily exist; provincial Services of Transport or Services of Communications and Public Works shall coordinate with local administrations in devising and submitting to provincial-level People's Committees the schemes on handling, inclusion into planning, construction of feeding roads or abolition of violating crossroads which fail to satisfy the traffic safety conditions.

4. Filling stations' drive-ways connecting to national highways:

4.1. Filling stations newly built along national highways must ensure the following requirements:

a) Being included in the planning on development of filling stations, which were approved by competent bodies and agreed with the Ministry of Transport on location planning, distance between stations, the size of stations in order to ensure traffic safety.

b) Filling stations must be built outside the road safety corridors, at the planned locations and ensure the designed scales prescribed by the Ministry of Trade. Particularly for filling-stations built along expressways, high-grade roads, exclusively exploited roads, grade-1 roads, there must be designs of type 1 or type 2 under Circular No. 14/1999/TT-BTM of July 7, 1999, of the Ministry of Trade, before they are connected to national highways.

c) Being approved in writing by competent road management bodies in term of the designs of the drive-ways lying within the safety corridors, the designs of locations for connection to national highways in order to ensure technical standards, water drainage and traffic safety signboards according to the provisions of the Regulation on Vietnam's current road signs.

d) Ground levelling and fill-ups for construction of work items in road safety corridors shall be carried out only after the construction permits are issued.

e) Agencies approving designs or granting construction permits for connection of drive-ways of filling stations to national highways shall comply with the provisions of Point 2.2, Clause 2, Section III of this Circular (excluding the step of reaching agreement on planning).

4.2. For filling stations built without permission, illegally connected to national highways or lying in road safety corridors with unqualified scale, which are existing along national highways, provincial-level petroleum management authorities shall have to draw up plannings and submit them to the provincial-level People's Committees for consideration and handling according to provisions of law.

4.3. Cases of addition or change of planned locations of filling stations or cases of new demands must be agreed upon by the Ministry of Transport.

5. Provincial/municipal Services of Transport or Services of Communications and Public Works, which are managing national highways under the Ministry of Transport's authorization, are competent to grant permits for construction on the national highways under their respective management just like the Road Management Sections as provided for in this Circular.

6. For connection roads and/or connection positions on local road systems, provincial-level People's Committees shall, basing themselves on Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP and this Circular, specify the use, exploitation and the permitted construction thereof in accordance with law and local road management.

IV. SETTLEMENT OF EXISTING PROBLEMS ON THE USE OF ROAD SAFETY CORRIDORS BEFORE THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF DECREE No. 186/2004/ND-CP

1. Dwelling houses and production, business or service establishments involving the use of road safety corridor land (hereinafter called land use) but not yet affecting traffic safety and/or road facility safety may be let to temporarily exist but in status quo without any modification or expansion and the land users must commit with commune-level People's Committees and the units directly managing the roads.

In cases where the use of road safety corridor land affects traffic safety and/or road facility safety, the competent road management bodies shall determine the extent of effect and propose competent People's Committees to recover the land and make compensations or provide supports with regard to land and assets attached to land, which have existed before the road safety corridors are announced.

2. The bases for compensations and ground clearance upon the compulsory relocation of facilities which have existed in the safety corridors shall comply with the Law on Road Traffic, the Land Law, the Government's Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP and Decree No. 181/2004/ND-CP, based on the time such facilities were constructed. The Road Management Sections, provincial Services of Transport or Services of Communications and Public Works shall direct their attached road management units to coordinate with commune-level People's Committees in basing on investigation documents and archives to make drawings of the locations, construction time, sizes of facilities lying within the traffic safety corridor land under the provisions of Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP according to the following temporal marks:

2.1. Facilities built before December 21, 1982, when there were no specific regulations on road safety corridors;

2.2. Facilities built in the period from December 21, 1982 to December 31, 1999, during which the construction or expansions in road protection corridors were banned under Decree No. 203/HDBT of the Council of Ministers (now the Government);

2.3. Facilities built in the period from January 1, 2000 to November 30, 2004, during which the construction or expansions in road protection corridors were banned under the Government's Decree No. 173/1999/ND-CP of December 7, 1999, detailing the implementation of the Ordinance on Protection of Traffic Works with regard to road traffic works;

2.4. Facilities built after November 30, 2004, during which the construction or expansions in safety corridors were banned under Decree No. 186/2004/ND-CP providing for the management and protection of road traffic infrastructures.

V. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

1. Units directly managing roads (for roads being exploited) or investors (for roads under projects on construction, upgrading or rennovation) shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with commune/district-level People's Committees in drawing up plans on implanting of boundary markers of road safety corridors and submit them to provincial-level People's Committees for approval; and at the same time assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with commune/district-level People's Committees in, publicizing and organizing the implantation of boundary markers on the sites and hand over them to commune-level People's Committees for management and protection of road safety corridors already marked with boundary marker posts.

2. Road management units shall have to regularly inspect, detect, stop and handle violation acts of encroaching upon and illegally using road safety corridors under the provisions of Section IV of this Circular; to promptly report and request the commune-level People's Committees of the localities where road safety corridors were encroached upon and the traffic inspection forces to handle them according to their competence; coordinate with local administrations in dismantling works encroaching upon or illegally using road safety corridors under their respective management and at the same time periodically report to their superior road management bodies on management of road safety corridors.

3. Road Management Sections, provincial Services of Transport and Services of Communications and Public Works shall have to work out plans and measures for handling of newly detected infringements upon road safety corridors according to reports of units directly managing roads, which have not yet been resolutely handled, and at the same time report on the results and difficulties as well as problems to Vietnam Road Administration (for national highways) or to provincial-level People's Committees (for roads under local management) for further handling.

4. Vietnam Road Administration shall base on the provisions of this Circular to direct and guide the protection of road traffic infrastructures nationwide, review and make annual reports on the protection of road traffic infrastructures; specify the contents which must be included in the construction permits for unified application nationwide.

5. People's Committees of all levels shall have to manage the use of land inside and outside the road safety corridors according to provisions of law; should pay attention to land assignment or lease; grant certificates of plannings, permits for construction along roads in order to ensure the compatibility with road traffic development planning and not to affect traffic work safety and transport activities; prevent and stop the situation that people who build houses along roads build driveways from their houses directly to national highways; direct and closely coordinate with road management units and relevant forces in applying measures to protect road traffic infrastructures, including road boundary marker posts. Works encroaching upon or illegally using road traffic safety corridors must be resolutely removed without compensations to the violating organizations or individuals.

6. Agencies, organizations and individuals shall have to protect road traffic infrastructures, detect and promptly notify acts of violating the law on protection of road traffic infrastructures to the nearest road management bodies.

7. Road traffic inspectorates and law enforcement bodies in localities shall, within the ambit of their respective tasks and powers, have to handle acts of violating the law on protection of road traffic infrastructures according to their competence and coordinate with road management units in protecting road traffic infrastructures.

This Circular replaces the Transport Minister's Circular No. 213/2000/TT-BGTVT of May 31, 2000, guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Government's Decree No. 172/1999/ND-CP of December 7, 1999, detailing the implementation of the Ordinance on Protection of Traffic Works with regards to road traffic works; the Transport Minister's Decision No. 2525/2003/QD-BGTVT of August 28, 2003, promulgating the Regulation on construction of facilities on roads being under exploitation, and take effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Agencies, organizations and individuals should promptly report to the Ministry of Transport problems arising in the course of implementation for consideration and solution.